aml therapy with irradiated allogeneic cells

Conditions: Adult Acute Megakaryoblastic Leukemia (M7); Adult Acute Minimally Differentiated Myeloid Leukemia (M0); Adult Acute Monoblastic Leukemia (M5a); Adult Acute Monocytic Leukemia (M5b); Adult Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia With Maturation (M2); Adult Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia Without Maturation (M1); Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia With 11q23 (MLL) Abnormalities; Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Del(5q); Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Inv(16)(p13;q22); Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia With t(16;16)(p13;q22); Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia With t(8;21)(q22;q22); Adult Acute Myelomonocytic Leukemia (M4); Adult Erythroleukemia (M6a); Adult Pure Erythroid Leukemia (M6b); Recurrent Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia; Untreated Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Summary: this pilot clinical trial studies if cells donated by a close genetic relative can help maintain acute myeloid leukemia (aml) complete remission (cr). eligible patients will receive a standard induction chemotherapy. if a complete remission results they will receive irradiated allogeneic cells from a hla haploidentical relative. only patients who obtain a cr after the standard induction chemotherapy are eligible for the experimental therapy (irradiated haploidentical cells).

primary objectives: i. toxicity of haploidentical allogeneic cellular therapy in patients in complete remission (cr) (or cr with incomplete platelet recovery \[crp\]) after induction chemotherapy with fludarabine (fludarabine phosphate)-cytarabine. ii. efficacy of haploidentical allogeneic cellular therapy in patients in cr (or crp) after induction chemotherapy with fludarabine-cytarabine (remission rates at 6, 12, 18, 24 months). secondary objectives: i. immunologic parameters before and after haploidentical therapy: host anti-leukemia t cells; host regulatory t cells. outline: induction chemotherapy: patients receive fludarabine phosphate intravenously (iv) over 1 hour once daily (qd) for 5 days and cytarabine iv over 4 hours for 5 days. treatment may continue for 1 or 2 courses at the discretion of the treating physician. allogeneic cellular therapy: patients undergo irradiated donor lymphocyte infusion (dli) of 3 x 10\^8 cluster of differentiation (cd)3+ cells/kg at 8 weeks. patients with stable disease may repeat irradiated dli every 8-12 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. after completion of study treatment, patients are followed up periodically for up to 2 years.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * histologically proven non-m3 aml: * refractory/relapsed aml or * initial diagnosis of aml in patient \>= 60 years old * total bilirubin =\< 1.5 times upper limit of normal (uln) institutional limits (unless gilbert's disease) * aspartate aminotransferase (ast) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[sgot\])/alanine aminotransferase (alt) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[sgpt\]) =\< 2.5 x institutional uln * cardiac left ventricular ejection fraction (lvef) \>= 35% * serum creatinine =\< 1.5 mg/dl * any organ dysfunction thought to be secondary to disease will be considered separately and the patient will be included at the investigators discretion * patients must give informed consent * eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status =\< 3 * must have a potential haploidentical donor (parent, sibling, child) * a patient is eligible for second enrollment (allo-cellular therapy) if all of the following inclusion criteria are met: * patient must have documented cr or crp after 1 or 2 cycles of fludarabine + cytarabine * patient must not be a candidate for an allo-hematopoietic stem cell transplant (hsct) * patient must have a partially (\>= 3/6 class i antigen) human leukocyte antigen (hla)-matched (by serology or low resolution deoxyribonucleic acid \[dna\] testing) relative able to serve as a donor * patients must not have active uncontrolled infections, other medical or psychological/social conditions that might increase the likelihood of patient adverse effects or poor outcomes * total bilirubin \< 1.5 times upper limit of normal (uln) institutional limits (unless gilbert's disease) * ast(sgot)/alt(sgpt) =\< 2.5 x institutional uln * serum creatinine \< 2.0 mg/dl * ecog performance status =\< 2 * donor: donor must be related to patient and be partially (\>= 3/6 antigen) hla-matched * donor: donor must meet all new brunswick affiliated hospitals (nbah) requirements for hematopoietic stem cell donation, including: * donor: age \>= 18 years old * donor: white blood cells (wbc) 4.0-10.0 x 10\^3/mm\^3 * donor: platelet count 150,000 to 440,000/mm\^3 * donor: hemoglobin/hematocrit; 12.5-18 g/dl, 38 to 54% * donor: not pregnant or lactating * donor: not human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)-1, hiv-2, hepatitis c virus (hcv), hepatitis b core or human t-lymphotropic virus (htlv)-i/ii seropositive; hepatitis b surface antigen (hb s ag) (-); meet other infectious disease screening criteria utilized by nbah blood center * donor: no uncontrolled infections, other medical or psychological/social conditions, or medications that might increase the likelihood of patient or donor adverse effects or poor outcomes * donor: meet other blood bank criteria for blood product donation (as determined by nbah blood center screening history and laboratory studies) exclusion criteria: * history of current or prior medical problems that the investigator feels will prevent administration of therapy or assessment of response due to excess toxicity * patients with known active central nervous system (cns) leukemia will be excluded from this clinical study * known hiv-positive patients are excluded from the study * patients may not be pregnant or breast feeding